Shannon …

As a kid I didn’t really notice the difference between my peers and I but when my teen aged years rolled around, fitting in and feeling normal became quite the chore. For as much as we say real beauty comes from the inside, to a thirteen year old girl trying to make her old torn up clothes look like the stuff off the racks, I sure didn’t feel beautiful on the outside or the inside. Don’t get me wrong I was extremely grateful for the generosity we had been shown but it was hard to feel confident in who I was when it was so easy to feel insecure when comparing myself to those around me. I guess someone noticed.

That year someone anonymously sponsored me as an “Angel Tree Kid”. One evening a stranger knocked on the door of our apartment. We answered the door and to our surprise there was no one there, just a note saying,”God cares and so do we.” I was so moved that tears filled my little thirteen year old eyes before a single gift was opened. The first thing I saw was a a big box with my name on it. I ever so carefully opened it up. In the box was the most beautiful pair of tennis shoes, not just any tennis shoes, but a brand new, never before worn by anyone else, pair of white high top Filas. Those shoes might as well have been a stack of a million dollars because that’s truly how it made me feel.

I guess that why I have a special heart for Taylor’s Closet and the girls that come and shop here. I know first hand how great it feels, not only to get new clothing, but to feel normal. And most importantly to know that someone cares. In that sense I wish that every one could walk a mile in my shoes….white high top Filas to be exact.